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Tax policies drive corporations to join multitude renouncing U.S. citizenship

Nick Giambruno
Caseyresearch.com
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 06:09 UTC
Don't be surprised to lose if you don't make an effort at being competitive. And if you go out of your way to make yourself less competitive, expect to lose. If that sounds like simple common sense, that's because it is.

But it's also exactly what the US has been doing for years - enacting tax policies that sabotage its global economic competitiveness. It's like trying to get in shape for a marathon by going on an all-McDonald's diet. (Speaking of McDonalds, check out this funny video spoof of what their commercials should really look like.)

Here are two major reasons why the US is lagging in the global economic marathon:
1. The US has the highest effective corporate income tax rate in the developed world (see chart below).

2. Unlike most other countries, which only tax domestic profits, the US taxes the earnings of foreign subsidiaries of US companies when the money is transferred back to the US. This has had the effect of US corporations keeping over $1.9 trillion in retained earnings offshore to avoid the crippling US corporate income tax.
Image

Comment: Psychopaths crave power and will do anything to hold on to it. In a capitalist system, that power is money. A bloated sense of entitlement and pathological corporate greed is driving businesses to move overseas.

Ponerology 101: Snakes in Suits

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Dollar

Is Ecuador dropping the U.S. dollar by creating state-backed digital currency?


RT
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:50 UTC
Image
© flickr.com
Ecuador is planning to create the world's first digital currency issued by the country's central bank, in what is seen by many as a step to abandon the US dollar, the currency now used by the Central American country.

The currency is expected to start circulating in December, according to the country's Central Bank.

The technical details or the name of the currency have not been revealed, although the officials stated that it would not be a crypto-currency like Bitcoin.

Comment: Central banks in control of a currency that can be created in unlimited amounts is how we are kept under control as debt slaves.For more on creating modern day serfs:

-Death of Money
-Eastern world is rebelling against the dollar

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Gear

Hyping fake terror threats: Israeli sources say ISIS targeting the Pope


CBS DC
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 13:30 UTC
Pope Francis
© VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images
Pope Francis waves as he leads the weekly general audience at St Peter’s square on Aug. 27, 2014 in Vatican City.
A new report claims that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is targeting Pope Francis - a report that the Vatican says is simply not true.

According to Il Tempo, Israeli sources reportedly told the Italian newspaper that the pope is "in the crosshairs of ISIS." The report stated that Francis is being targeted because he is "the greatest exponent of the Christian religions" and the "bearer of false truth."

The Vatican, though, denounced the report.

"There is nothing serious to this," Father Federico Lombardi S.J., a Vatican spokesman, told Catholic News Agency. "There is no particular concern in the Vatican. This news has no foundation."

The Catholic News Agency reports that Italy has issued a nationwide terror alert, despite no imminent threats or specifics about a potential attack on the country.


Comment: As numerous countries are hyping the terror threat, it appears the PTB may have something up their sleeves. Rather interesting that this threat against the Pope comes from the Israelis, as Mossad and Shin Bet (Israel's Security Agency) have long, odious histories of committing false flags.

Secrecy, cover-ups, and crafted perceptions: FalseFlags

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Gear

New York federal court rules Microsoft must hand over personal data stored abroad


RT
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:54 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Bogdan Cristel
Microsoft has been told it must handover emails stored abroad to US prosecutors by a New York court. However, the software giant says it will fight the ruling, saying that an email deserves the same privacy protection as a paper letter sent by mail.

The company says they will not release any emails to US authorities, while it appeals the ruling, made by Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the US District Court in Manhattan. She said that Microsoft must hand over information, regardless of where it was stored.

"Microsoft will not be turning over the email and plans to appeal," a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters. "Everyone agrees this case can and will proceed to the appeals court. This is simply about finding the appropriate procedure for that to happen."

Preska says her decision is final, but she will allow Microsoft to appeal the ruling and as asked both parties to give their planned courses of action by September 5. This case appears to be the first of its kind in which a corporation is challenging a US search warrant to obtain data being held overseas.

The original July 31 ruling concerned a warrant prosecutors served on Microsoft for an individual's emails stored in Dublin, Ireland. A magistrate judge in April ruled the warrant was valid.

Comment: Wary? It sounds like more damage control. Microsoft has always been at the center of the technological world we are currently living in. Internet privacy is pretty much a myth now, if we ever even had it to begin with.

Damage Control? Microsoft Inc, whose collaboration with the NSA was exposed earlier this year, to 'encrypt its Internet traffic' because it 'suspects' NSA is spying on it

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Airplane

Moscow warns of retaliation after Poland's ridiculous closure of airspace causing Russian minister's plane to be grounded


RT
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 10:21 UTC
Image
© http://mil.ru/
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu
Polish closure of its airspace for the plane of the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu will not go without an "appropriate response" as it caused a "real threat to flight safety," Russia's Foreign Ministry has stated.

The diplomatic standoff on Friday took hours to resolve after Poland refused to grant free passage to Shoygu's plane as he was returning from celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Slovakian national uprising that took place in the town of Banská Bystrica.

An hour after the TU-154 left Slovakia, the flyover in Polish airspace was suddenly refused due to the plane's changed status. On the way to the celebrations, Poland designated the minister's flight as civilian, while on the way back, it was changed from civil to military - for "unknown reasons", according to Poland's state air navigation services agency. Under non-civilian status, crossing Polish airspace requires at least a 72 hours' notice before the flight.

The plane had to be grounded in Bratislava in what the Russian Foreign Ministry called an "outrageous incident", while Poland cited "technical reasons" for not allowing the plane through.

Comment: Poland is just the West's agent here. They are merely doing what their NATO (Read: U.S.) masters are telling them to do. In reality, these actions are merely the sad, pathetic attempts of the U.S. to get under Russia's skin and tempt it into a reactionary, unintelligent response that the U.S. can capitalize on to further their propaganda war against Russia. Sadly for them, Russia is not so dumb and won't be tempted into such reactions.

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Snakes in Suits

​IMF throws fascists in Kiev $1.4bn lifeline


RT
Sun, 31 Aug 2014 07:08 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Vultures of Capitalism
The International Monetary Fund has given a green light for Ukraine to receive the second tranche of financial assistance totalling $1.39 billion, meaning more austerity measures for the already struggling economy.

"The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the first review of Ukraine's performance under an economic program supported by a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA)," the organization said in a statement.

"The completion of this review enables the disbursement of SDR 914.67 million (about US$1.39 billion), which would bring total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 2.97 billion (about US$4.51 billion)," the statement reads.

Comment: It must be very easy to be a fascist in a warm office. The IMF will pay you for doing what you love - looting and ordering bombings from a comfy chair. Don't attempt to lead, just loot and kill.

It's no wonder that the civilian population has been trouncing Kiev - the anger they must feel! A fascist regime is killing their countrymen and the future they voted for, a future of stability, was sacrificed when Yanukovych was ousted after many Western manipulations. As it was written in 2010:
The final result of the 2010 Ukrainian elections was an overwhelming rejection by voters of Yushchenko, the "hero" of the Orange Revolution, who received barely 5% of the vote. After five years of economic and political chaos, Ukrainians clearly want some kind of stability.
<...>
Yanukovych has pledged to focus instead on Ukraine's economic crisis and political corruption. Regarding Moscow, he has added that he will welcome Russia into a consortium that would jointly operate Ukraine's natural gas pipeline network, restoring influence that Yushchenko and his highly ambitious Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko tried to cancel. Another important signal not welcomed in NATO circles was his announcement that he would extend Russia's strategically vital lease on the naval base at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol due to expire in 2017.


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No Entry

Fee to renounce U.S. citizenship goes up fourfold to $2,350 - 400% increase


RT
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 19:33 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Yuri Gripas
The cost of getting rid of US citizenship has quadrupled to $2350, up from $450. The changes will come into effect on September 6th and the State Department says it is necessary to cover the real cost of processing an application to lose citizenship.

The price hike marks a sharp u turn from 2010 when the State Department decided on the $450 fee "in order to lessen the impact on those who need the service and not to discourage the utilization of the service, a development the Department feels would be detrimental to national interests."

Announcing the move this week [LINK: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/08/28/2014-20516/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and ], the State Department defended it the price tag saying it had to reflect the true cost of the process.

"Demand for the service has increased dramatically, consuming far more consular officer time and resources. Documenting a US citizen's renunciation of citizenship is extremely costly, requiring American consular officers overseas to spend substantial amounts of time to accept, process, and adjudicate cases. The Department believes there is no public benefit or other reason for setting this fee below cost," wrote Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy.

But Kevyn Nightingale, a tax adviser to people who want to give up their US citizenship, said that he could not believe the process really costs that much.
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MIB

Kiev arrests employees of Russian embassy in Kiev, then denies it; embassy officially declares them missing


RT
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:58 UTC
Russian Embassy
© yandex.maps.ru
Russian Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine
A group of Russian embassy employees, detained in Kiev under a completely dubious pretext, have been declared missing by the embassy, after the Russian Foreign Ministry's call for their immediate release was ignored by Ukrainian authorities.

Two Russian diplomats - 3rd Secretary of the Embassy Andrey Golovanov and attaché Mikhail Shorin - were detained by Kiev police earlier this week, despite carrying diplomatic passports. While the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry admitted their detention, the Interior Ministry later denied the incident.

"In connection with such contradictory reports from Ukrainian authorities, the Russian Embassy in Ukraine is forced to officially declare the disappearance of [Golovanov and Shorin] of the territory of Ukraine," Russia's embassy said in a statement on Friday, as cited by Ria Novosti.

Two men who were detained near a café in Kiev were carrying "hand grenades" and had documents "resembling" Russian diplomatic passports, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed in an official note on August 27.


Comment: Right... And we should believe them why, exactly?


The pretext for their detention is clearly fabricated, the Russian FM said in response, demanding the immediate release of the diplomatic staff.

"Despite showing their diplomatic passports, they were detained under a completely false pretext," the statement said.

"We demand the immediate release of the embassy staff members and prevention of any future violations of international conventions on diplomatic immunity," the ministry added.

Comment: There's a lot going on with the Ukraine crisis lately, and it will be interesting to see where it all leads. For example:

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Light Saber

Yankees Go Home! Anti-NATO protests erupt in Slovakia


PraguePost
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 07:46 UTC
Image
Bratislava - Slovak regional governor Marian Kotleba, who heads the far-right People's Party - Our Slovakia, today displayed a huge banner saying "Yankees go home! Stop NATO" on the regional office building in Banská Bystrica, central Slovakia, Slovak daily Sme writes on its website.

The 70th anniversary of the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising is marked today, and it is celebrated in particular in Banská Bystrica, where the uprising started. Politicians and diplomats from several foreign countries take part in the celebrations.

Kotleba is known for his negative stance toward NATO and the European Union. He has previously labeled NATO a terrorist organization. Along with Miroslav Belička, the head of his press section, he hung the banner from the office.
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Light Saber

Putin calls for peace negotiations in Ukraine, reminds Europeans of their forgotten ideals


RT
Sun, 31 Aug 2014 09:22 UTC
putin
© Reuters / Alexei Druzhinin
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Kiev to start substantial talks on deescalating the crisis in eastern Ukraine. He added that it's an illusion to expect that the rebels would calmly watch their homes being destroyed.


Comment: Exactly. Any hopes of a peaceful federalization of Ukraine were shattered the moment Kiev started murdering civilians and destroying their homes.


"We have agreed on a plan, so its realization must be pursued," Putin told Channel 1 TV, adding that the Ukrainian government "must immediately start substantial talks - not a technical discussion - on the political organization of society and the state in southeast Ukraine so that the interests of people who live there are protected."

The plan, according to Russia's leader, puts negotiations at the center of the peace process. In a clear reference to the toppling of Viktor Yanukovich by the Maidan movement in February, Putin said that mistakes such as a power takeover should be avoided and called it the main cause of today's crisis.


Comment: Notice how Russia is the only one calling for real negotiations in the interests of peace (just as they are the only ones actively supporting a fully impartial investigation of MH17). The West merely accuses Putin of escalating and supporting the conflict, while they do nothing to stop it, and actively encourage it with their support of Poroshenko's regime.


The Russian president called on Kiev to consider the upcoming autumn and winter period and think about the heating season. The devastated infrastructure of the southeast requires full repair otherwise people might just freeze to death, he said.

"It looks as if only Russia cares about that. The first most essential condition is to stop combat operations and begin reconstruction of the infrastructure, replenish inventories, do the necessary repairs and scheduled maintenance to be ready for the cold season."


Comment: In politics as in life, it is best to judge a politician by his or her deeds, not words. The West talks a lot about their 'humanitarian missions' in places like Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc., but we all know where that leads. On the other hand, Putin speaks of the same things, but his words are not hollow. Russia actually gets things done.

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